Q&A with Susan Gala – Healing the Vagina

First, Susan, I want to say a huge congratulations to you because people loved your segment. They were really, really blown away and you have open minds in ways that are remarkable. You have changed lives. Thank you for your contribution to our show.

SG:

Thank you Cindy, thank you for having me here. I am so honoured.

Cindy:

So let’s open up the lines. I know we have questions from our fans, but Shirley is actually here. Shirley, what questions do you have for Susan today?

Shirley:

I am very curious to know if you actually have created a process or planned approach to healing trauma through the vaginal area. That’s really what I want to know because even after just listening to what you had to say on CindyUncorked! Susan, I found it to be really, really helpful. So, I was wondering if you take clients or had a process that you teach. Could you explain that please?

SG:

I do. I have created a process and I always begin with a very conscious, radiant femme breathing process. I have found that when women are affected by trauma, no matter what that trauma may be, that their voice, their heart and their vagina are shut down. When I say that their voice is shut down, I don’t mean that they can’t speak – they are not able to communicate properly, but also they are not able to breathe properly.

I want to tell you a bit about the throat anatomy and the vaginal cavity anatomy. The cavities of the throat and the vagina, ironically, look the same which makes sense. When we are caught in the trauma trap, the breathing shuts down. So my main focus begins with a breath, a very conscious breath and I teach you how to breathe and access the emotions in the vagina. Along with that is an unveiling process where you are willing to talk about your story because sometimes the story has been in the present but it can also be in the very, deep past. What I mean by “very, deep past” is on a cellular memory level or, as I would call it, epigenetics which is the term that really helps us understand that through our DNA through ancestors or lineages, that our emotional code hasn’t been released. Perhaps because our mother, when she was in gestation, she was affected by a trauma and was unable to heal from it, or it was her mother’s mother and it can go down several generations. So part of this process is the unveiling. Then I add movement into this, because we don’t understand how the movement of our pelvis helps to define the balance of our body and the connections of the emotional, physical and spiritual energy from the back of the pelvis (the sacral) that travels up to the brain, then we’re still living and locked down. Or as I call it, locked from the belly button down. We have to learn to move the pelvis in many directions to wake up the energy not only in the pelvis, but in the body as a whole

Cindy:

Susan, what some people may not realize is that you’re a licensed health practitioner. You’re a licensed massage therapist – you have multiple disciplines under your belt. I think that’s important for people to know because you work on so many different levels.

SG:

Yes, thank you. I am trained as a licensed massage therapist and I have over twenty-five years as a practitioner and business owner. What I truly and firmly believe in and was certified in fifteen years ago was holistic, pelvic core techniques for women who do have problems down there. Neuroscientists have been talking about this for forty years and are now freely talking about how trauma is trapped in the body. I know from my own experience with the body and with my training in the study of the pelvis in all of its cycles in a woman’s life, what happens down there affects everyone profoundly and through my work and study, I have been able to heal the women around me and myself.

Cindy:

Great, let me move to the other fan questions we have received. Cheyenne from Houston, TX e-mailed in and said “I have always had painful sex and I didn’t realize it was tied to something I went through in my past. How can I have sex with less pain?” Great question! We all want to have better sex.

SG:

This is a great question because there has been trauma in the pasta and we shut down and, like I mentioned a little before, if our voice is shut down then our vagina is shut down. Our vagina will tighten up so if we’re touched in a way that’s very unpleasant, not nourishing or unloving, then we are not able to open up. It’s really, really important for a woman to have a conscious conversation with her partner and discuss how she needs to be touched (or how she needs to be nourished) because it can put her in a pattern of always being disconnected down there.

Cindy:

I know that for me, I used to have painful sex and what changed for me was having that conversation with my partner. And what I found really interesting is that he has actually been trained in some of these areas as well. What has happened, as we were together, he would test things out and help me to feel safe in receiving pleasure. It really goes back to having that conversation.

SG:

Nourishment is so important. And I don’t mean just self-care, or going for a message or acupuncture or even feeling that feminine joy of having our girlfriends around us. I mean when we feel that deep feminine core it helps us radiate outside and feel full and alive again.

Cindy:

So the first step is really to have a partner who is loving and safe and with whom you can communicate. Pamela from Bolton, CO said “After watching the episode, I realized I have anger inside (I must have an angry vagina), how can I make friends with her?” This is a GREAT question!

SG:

It is a great question! First of all, I would ask her what that means to her? Why does she think she has an angry vagina? Has she been closing yourself off from relationships? Has there been a point in your life where you feel you’ve had enough and you don’t want to take responsibility for that deep, intimate part of your body that is the most important part of a woman’s body throughout all stages and cycles in our lives? And what have you been doing for nourishing? Yes, that does shut down and closes us off and keeps us isolated in our community and professional spaces. When we are in those spaces, we don’t feel it’s presence and as a consequence we’re shut down. You’re not friends with it because maybe you’ve been running on a lot of exhausting and stressful masculine energy (there’s nothing wrong with masculine energy!) – it’s yin and yang for us. We all have parts of our energy that are masculine and feminine. Again, I think you need to go back and nourish it to make friends with it.

Cindy:

I think this shows that we, as women, do not love and nourish ourselves enough.

SG:

We don’t. We’re always running, on the go and have a full calendar. Your body is a sacred temple. If your body isn’t healthy from the inside out, it’s not going to help you get through all of the stages in your life. The outside of your body can be changed in so many ways, but the inside of your body really needs to be healthy to sustain you. Within that sacred center of ours, are our reproductive organs. Not only does the vagina get shut down, what happens to your bladder and to your uterus?

Cindy:

Its’ kind of like a spider web – the minute you hit a small portion of that web, it affects the rest of the web. Our last question that was e-mailed in, before I bring it back to the people who are online, is from Madison in Oakville, ON. Madison asks “Why does my vagina change when I hit menopause?” I’m not there yet and I don’t want my vagina to change! We need to talk about things like this.

SG:

This is the best kept secret. We all have hormones, right? Our hormones change so what happens to the vaginal wall – and the vaginal wall is the most absorptive part of our body – but what happens is that the lining of uterus and vagina becomes thin and so sex becomes painful, and extremely dry so that it feels like you’re shrinking down there. What do we do about it? I know a lot of women say ‘it’s outrageous, I don’t believe in anything like that.’ I’m very holistic and I believe that you should learn or train on how to do self-massage and learn about yoni steam (it’s herbal and has been used for centuries) and you should of course engage in intimacy. You should not decide that “Oh, I’m too old” because that’s not true. In menopause, believe it or not, you have nothing to worry about – by that I mean you don’t have to worry about getting pregnant any more. You can have the most incredible relationship with your partner at this age which can be very fulfilling and very, very sensual. There are some other products and natural things I would recommend, because as your skin changes so will your skin down there.

Cindy:

So, a couple of questions. The first that comes to mind is can’t women of that age just use lubricant or is it still dry?

SG:

They can. I suggest coconut oil – raw coconut oil. And also, I believe in local honey. Not for intimacy but a couple of dabs inside your vagina a couple of times a week will nourish it, but it has to be local – raw, organic and local.

Cindy:

I’ve also heard of something called a jade egg. Tell us what that is and why it’s great.

SG:

I don’t have one to show you but it’s the size of an egg. They come in three different sizes, but it’s not necessary to get all sizes. Just the regular egg size (or small) that is placed just inside the opening to your vagina and is a graphite (jade) egg. Just play around with it and gently push it into the vagina – it’s gentle, gentle nourishment. I’ll explain it like this: Anything you want to use to nourish your vagina should be, I believe, something that is created from a practice that has been around for a long time not the toys that are being a created right now. Imagine for a moment what it’s like if you sip water from a straw. When you’re intimate with your partner I want you to visualize sipping your partner in or on the jade egg. It will help relax the pelvic floor muscles to relax. It’s about being conscious about how you want to create nourishment without force and frustration.

Cindy:

Everything has to be done with love. Do you hold the jade egg at the entrance for a while and let it work?

SG:

So I would say that ideally you would be lying on the floor on your back with your knees bent and it should slide in with a little work. It’s threaded with dental floss for easy removal. The goal is to not let it “hang” out of you but to learn to open up your vagina. Like a flower bud, your vaginal muscles will relax and open up naturally before coming back together and tightening. Eventually it will become attuned to your breathing. It’s very conscious and loving. Because in this society, women are expected and made to look and behave certain ways, we have to believe in certain exercise modalities that keep our pelvis and out butt muscles contracted to look better in clothes and it actually harms us – walking in that contracted way.

Cindy:

We’re down to the last minutes of our call and I know some new people joined the call. Does anyone have any questions for Susan? Alright, I don’t think anyone has any more questions!